


Thousand Miles

by TheGreatCatsby



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drugs, F/M, Fic War, Post Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6077715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatCatsby/pseuds/TheGreatCatsby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She doesn't know when she's coming back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thousand Miles

**Author's Note:**

> Well this happened.

They don't get a proper goodbye. 

Ginoza doesn't get to follow Akane to the air strip, to watch her board the plane. They don't get to hold each other just before she goes. She can't press a kiss to his lips. He can't look into her eyes and see the hope there that she has, that she gives him. They only have their memories. 

It's sudden. Akane isn't allowed goodbyes. She leaves in the middle of the night, sends Ginoza a message so he knows before Mika announces it the next day. He'll wake up for it, because he always wakes up when his device gives him an alert. He won't be able to leave the building. 

She tells him that she'll be back. That the System wants her to go overseas, back to SEAUn, to help weed out those who threaten the stability of the country. The government has gotten rid of corrupt individuals within itself, and now it needs to stop outside interference from preventing the Sibyl System from being implemented in the same way it is in Japan. 

Akane doesn't want the System implemented there. But she has no choice. 

She uses the words “the System wants me” in the hopes that Ginoza will figure out that this is bigger than Kasei, that it will hint at the truth. Ginoza is a smart man. 

She hopes he understands. 

* 

Ginoza sits up in bed and considers breaking the rules. He considers attempting to leave the building. It's a selfish thought, because it would only make Akane worry. It wouldn't help either of them. It wouldn't change anything. 

So he doesnt. 

*

Before the plane takes off, Akane's wrist device gives her a message alert. She opens it, finding a message from Ginoza. 

“You don't know when you're coming back, do you?” 

The plane starts to speed down the runway, and Akane can't breathe. Her eyes burn. 

She doesn't. 

* 

The next morning Shimotsuki explains that Akane has gone overseas, which means that Division One will have less personel. She looks tired. Ginoza knows what it's like to lose a partner, to have to shoulder the burden of a division alone. 

Kunizuka and Sugo throw him concerned looks but he ignores them. After Shimotsuki is done, he asks to speak to her outside, and reluctantly she follows him. 

“They're not sending someone in as a temporary replacement?” he asks. 

“It shouldn't be for that long,” Shimotsuki says, arms folded over her chest. Still closed off. 

“I'm here to help pick up the slack, or to offer any advice, if you need it,” Ginoza tells her. 

“I don't need help, Enforcer,” Shimotsuki says, but she sounds unsure. 

“Everyone needs help,” Ginoza says. “I've been in your position before. The offer is open.” He leaves it there, heads back into the office. A few seconds later Shimotsuki follows. 

Perhaps she doesn't know how hard it will be, working alone. Perhaps she's convinced it will only be a matter of days. 

It won't be. As much as Ginoza would like to hope, Akane's message repeats itself in his head. The System wanted her to go. Not Kasei. Which means this goes above Kasei. Ginoza has always suspected that Akane knows more than she's willing or able to tell him, and he hasn't pushed, but it scares him. 

Knowledge is dangerous. Knowledge is valuable, but knowledge comes with a price. 

* 

There are endless meetings, some with people who don't know the true nature of the System they're fighting for, some with the System posing as various human beings. Those conversations are the ones that send chills up Akane's spine. If she thinks too hard about it, she could become paranoid. The System can be anywhere, look like anyone, even in a place where it isn't fully integrated. It makes her wonder about life back home. 

If it were up to her, she would find a way to set up a stable government without the System here, but the most she can do is try to mitigate the worst parts of the System, improve it, since it's already too integrated to get rid of completely. 

The first thing she asks is to get rid of the collars. She imagines Ginoza with a metal collar around his throat and it makes her sick. SEAUn doesn't have a dedicated rehabilitation facility, and Akane will have to help them set that up too. They compromise on wrist devices, to keep track of the latent criminals until something more can be done. 

Akane asks for a greater emphasis on preventative therapy, and for the possibility of people whose crime coefficients have reached above 100 to be able to be reintegrated into society if their numbers, with treatment, return to acceptable levels. This too is met with protests. Once a latent criminal, always a latent criminal is the view. Akane doesn't believe that. 

In the past, criminals were people who actually committed crimes. Many latent criminals have not. Akane knows it is too much to ask to abolish the whole idea of a latent criminal, but she can help make sure that it isn't a life sentence. 

The bureaucracy is frustrating, the meetings tiring, and she can't help but feel like this is all a test from the System, testing her loyalty, her mindset, how much of a threat she truly is when given more power to make a change. 

And then, the meetings end so that actions can be implemented. 

The true test begins: Akane is sent into the field. 

* 

Ginoza has nightmares. 

He dreams that Akane and Kougami fight, and that he kills her. He dreams that Akane is taken prisoner by the System, or by militants in SEAUn and tortured. He stops sleeping, trying to stay up as late as he possibly can, because he doesn't want to wake up feeling sick with horror. 

It gives him time to think. 

He thinks about the System. Akane's words imply that it's an entity that can think, that can want. That doesn't make sense. It should be nothing more than programming. Perhaps, at the most, artificial intelligence developed to the highest possible level. Perhaps even artificial intelligence that can mimic human thought and behavior, but then again, Ginoza can't imagine such an overencompassing System being made up of humans like him. After all, what would give them the right to have such complete control over so many lives? 

That thought sends chills through his body. He finds himself shaking, because what if. It could be an irrational thought—he's no stranger to those—but what if it isn't? 

Kagari found out something, before he disappeared. They all knew he hadn't run. 

What was it? 

*

The city is calm, but in the countryside, it is still chaos. 

Akane doesn't see Kougami, but she does see fighting. She sees fires, explosives, bodies ripped apart by weapons that aren't a dominator, people dying while their blood seeps into the soil, coloring it almost black. She hears screams, both of pain and of protest against the System taking control. 

She isn't alone. She has a team, but she doesn't know them. They aren't her team. She feels lonely. 

She would give anything for a familiar face. She doesn't understand how Kougami dropped everything and everyone and managed to stay and fight here. 

Already, she wants to go back. 

*

“You look awful. I can contact Akane-chan, but maybe you should tell me what you're thinking.” 

Ginoza sits on the couch in Shion's office. The glow of the various computer screens makes him uneasy. “I would rather not, in this building.” 

“We have nowhere else to go,” Shion points out. 

And Mika certainly wouldn't take them outside just so they could talk. 

“How much do you know about the Sibyl System?” Ginoza asks. 

Shion sighs and leans back in her chair, grabs the pack of cigarettes on her desk and fishes one out. She lights it, then offers Ginoza one. 

Ginoza shakes his head. 

She takes a long drag and exhales smoke. “Anything you and I want to know is hidden behind so many firewalls that even an expert hacker would have to go straight to the source to find out what's behind them. And we both know how that turned out.” 

Kagari, and Makishima's partner. 

“What are you thinking?” Shion asks. 

“I think Akane knows,” Ginoza says, “and the System is using her and the fact that she has that knowledge.” 

“Maybe, but that also means Akane can use that knowledge,” Shion points out. “She wouldn't just keep it there in her head and not do anything.” 

“I know. That's what I'm afraid of.” 

“What are you thinking it is?” 

Ginoza fiddles with his glove. “What if the System is more than just some sort of programming? I don't know much about that kind of thing, but what if it's evolved to have a mind of its own? Like artificial intelligence, developed enough to seem human?” 

Shion hums. “The System does have a capacity for making many complex judgements.” She grins at him. “Is the by-the-book Ginoza Nobuchika actually questioning our System?” 

“If it is based off humans,” Ginoza murmurs, “what gives it the right to control so much of our lives?” 

“Because of the computer component,” Shion says. “An algorithm that has more processing power and logic than the human brain because it isn't cluttered with emotions.” 

“It has wants,” Ginoza says, and Shion's eyebrows shoot up. “The System wanted Akane to go overseas, not Kasei. That was what Akane told me. And if it has wants, then that must mean it has plans. An agenda.” 

“Perhaps you're thinking too much,” Shion says, putting out her cigarette. 

“Or maybe-” 

“If Akane knows something and is still alive and has her job,” Shion continues, “it's because she's useful. But we know that the same can't be said for all of us.” 

Ginoza stares at her. 

“We are useful, but according to the System we're also detrimental to society,” Shion says with a sad smile. “Just replaceable parts in a machine. Akane-chan must've done something really extraordinary to be protected from all that.” 

“She's very capable,” Ginoza says quietly. “But no one can take on everything alone.” 

“Is that something you learned from her?” Shion asks. 

Ginoza nods. 

“She is really good for you. I hope she comes back soon.” 

* 

Shion is the only person who can contact Akane from Japan, and one night, while unable to sleep in a tent in the middle of nowhere, Akane gets a call. 

“Akane-chan,” Shion's voice comes through, almost clear. Akane feels warmth spread through her body at the sound of a familiar voice. “How are you?” 

“Tired,” Akane says. “I want to go back. I'm afraid I can't say much about what's happened here. How is everything back there?” 

“Good, good,” Shion said. “Shimotsuki might be at her wit's end. Ginoza came to see me today.” 

“Oh?” Akane's heart starts beating harder. 

“And not just for work,” Shion says. “Do you know when you're coming back?” 

“No. What happened?” 

“Ginoza was asking questions about your last message to him. He seems to think the System has a will of its own.” 

Akane swallows. So he'd figured out something, after all. 

“I told him to stop thinking so hard,” Shion said. “He wanted me to try to find out more, but my hands are tied. And besides, even if I did hack the System, I wouldn't get very far.” 

“I know,” Akane says. 

“Whatever you know must be because the System lets you know it, right?” Shion asks. 

Akane closes her eyes. “Yeah.” 

“Hopefully they haven't noticed what Ginoza's been thinking,” Shion says. “I try to protect this room and my lines of communication as best I can but I don't know how well it works. I've never really had a reason.” 

“I hope so,” Akane agrees. “And I hope I'm back soon.” 

“Have you seen any familiar faces?” Shion asks. 

Akane wonders if Kougami is even alive anymore. “No, I haven't.” 

“The rest of the world is a big place,” Shion says. “Sometimes I wonder if it's all really as destroyed as we've been told it is.” 

“Me too,” Akane says. “But this place, at least, is still a war zone.” 

“Stay safe,” Shion says. “I have to get back to work. It's always something. I'll talk to you again soon. Feel free to call if you need anything. Including a familiar voice.” 

Akane can't help but smile. “Thank you.” 

After Shion hangs up, Akane finally manages to fall asleep. 

*

A blaring alarm tears Ginoza from his sleep. Everything is bathed in red. He's slumped over on his couch, his tablet abandoned on the floor. He has just enough time to process that he hadn't meant to fall asleep when he hears his door open. 

Two men in white burst into the room. Ginoza scrambles to his feet, confused. The one closest grabs him by the arm, his real arm, and he tries to struggle away but something sharp bites into the skin of his neck. 

His head spins, his knees give, and he passes out. 

When he comes to, he's on his side. He tries to sit up, but his head still feels off-kilter, and his stomach lurches. He swallows, takes a few deep breaths, closes his eyes for a few moments. Maybe he passes out again. When he opens them, he's able to focus and he's nearly sick for a different reason. 

The white room with the glass front. The cold, dry air. Two months of his life, gone, spent in a strange fog punctuated by searing grief and self-loathing. 

This is isolation. 

*

 

There are many camps with children running around, playing war. Their lives are war, and it's so normal that they can turn it into a game. It's the opposite of people who have never been to war, who can look at it as some strange fantasy, but the result is the same. 

These camps with children are on the fringes, which means that they are a bit separate from the actual fighting. Occasionally some of the camps are razed, and people die, and it's just a fact of life for these families that they will have to move. Akane spends time talking to the people there, trying to find out what their stance is on the System, if they even know what this fighting is about, and if they can be convinced to move to the city. 

Many of them want to stay. And many of them don't know. 

The System has never dealt well with people on the fringes. It doesn't like this. There isn't much she can do. She is not the System and she can't control the will of other people. But she wonders if the System will hold it against her, will add it to the list of reasons she can't go home. 

* 

“I promised I would help Inspector Shimotsuki.” 

“The Division is understaffed.” 

“My crime coefficient is the same.” 

These are the protests he manages to get out before he is drugged into submission. 

The drugs make him ill. The nurses give him food that he can't keep down. The headaches keep him from thinking until he passes out, sleeps for hours he can't count. Every time he tries to think, the thoughts scitter away until he can barely form words. 

He can only think of one. 

Akane. 

* 

She hears about Kougami Shinya from a man in one of the fringe camps. He was tired of the fighting, left to go explore the borders with a group of other people to see if there was anything worth saving. He would decide what to do next. But he was alive. 

He is alive. 

Akane feels satisfied. She hopes Kougami has found what he's been looking for. 

She isn't like him. She just wants to go home. 

* 

A nurse drags Ginoza into the visiting room. His legs feel like jelly. What he's seeing doesn't feel like reality, even though he knows it is. 

Kasei sits on the other side of the glass. 

“You and I both know what you've done wrong,” she says. “You should not bite the hand that keeps you alive.” 

The words take a moment to sink in. Ginoza understands them after a few tries. He can't say anything back. 

Kasei seems to know that he's been drugged beyond functioning. “You will not question the System. Continue with this line of thinking and your life will be forfit. As it is, life as you know it cannot continue. I'm offering you a choice.” She pauses, to let him process it. “I will let you out, but Tsunemori will stay overseas fighting in a war that may very well kill her. Or, Tsunemori can return home, but you will remain in the facility.” 

It isn't a choice. It occurs to Ginoza that Kasei must have known what he would do, but that doesn't matter. What matters is Akane's life, and her happiness, and he can't do much from a cell but he can do this. 

“I'll stay.” 

* 

When Akane steps outside, for the first time in months she doesn't hear explosions. Tokyo is loud, but somehow peaceful. The cars and the chatter of people are nothing but background noise. 

She arrives at her apartment first, just long enough to drop off her bag. She'd sent a message to Ginoza once she'd landed, but he still hasn't answered. She decides to head into work, to reassure everyone that she's back and ready to rejoin the team. 

The office is oddly subdued. Mika briefly acknowledges her, looking like she's aged a few years in the few months that Akane has been gone. Everyone is on duty today, except for the one person she's looking for. 

“Where's Enforcer Ginoza?” she asks. 

Mika looks away. 

Kunizuka says, “They didn't tell you.” 

“Tell me what.” Akane stands. 

It's news meant to break her. 

* 

Ginoza knows he made the right decision. 

But the drugs. He can barely remember her face anymore, her voice, her eyes. Her hope. They've taken that away from him. 

He starts to wonder about death. 

*

“It's my fault. He started thinking about the nature of the System because of my message. I will gladly go back if you release him.” Akane is furious. Ginoza is being held against his will, heavily drugged, alone, and Kasei is using him against her. 

“I need you here,” Kasei says. “Enforcer Ginoza is replaceable. He should not hold so much importance to you.”

“You put him away because he started questioning the System,” Akane says, “but his crime coefficient is the same. If you're going to play by the rules you've set up, then you have to release him. He's still capable of his job. Are you going to start policing people for their thoughts now?” 

“You are dismissed, Tsunemori.” 

“I can make a choice, too,” Akane says. “I can tell the entire country.” 

“You would not get very far,” Kasei says. 

“Try me.” 

“That won't be necessary.” 

“Release him.” 

“You will throw away your career and your life.” 

“My crime coefficient doesn't go up,” Akane points out. “Technically, you would be doing something illegal to detain me, or kill me. If I disappeared, people would know that something happened. And you would lose your most valuable player, right? The person who challenges you to become better. I don't care about my career. I want to do what's right.” 

“It would be a mistake.” 

“Not in my eyes,” Akane says. “I'll give you a week.” 

She turns and walks out. 

She's shaking. 

* 

The glass wall opens. 

“You're being released,” the nurse says. “You'll have a few days off to recover.” 

Ginoza is escorted to a car. The car takes him back to the familiar PSB tower. Somehow, he ends up back in his quarters. Everything is sharper. The drugs wear off, but he is so used to them. 

The fog in his brain shifts. 

*

Akane recieves the message during the afternoon shift. 

She doesn't care that she should stay in the office. She rushes to Ginoza's quarters. He doesn't let her in. She sends him a warning message. 

“I'm coming in.” 

Then she overrides his security and steps inside. 

Ginoza is curled up on his couch, pale and shaking, hair sticking to his face. 

Akane kneels in front of him, brushing his damp hair back. “I'm sorry,” she whispers. “I'm so sorry.” 

Ginoza's gaze shifts from the floor to her face, and he offers her a shaky smile. “It's, it's...not your fault,” he stutters, like he's relearning how to speak. 

His shaking makes her feel ill, but his smile. After everything, he can still smile for her. 

“You'll be okay,” she promises, raising a hand to cup his cheek. “I'm back. I'm not leaving.” 

He sighs and leans into her touch. “I know.”


End file.
